Baseball and its quirks. There’s no other sport where you could play part of the game and still have a winner due to weather. (NASCAR isn’t a sport.)

Terry Francona decided to have most of the regular lineup sit because of the team’s late arrival in Baltimore. Looking at what he devised, it was very unlikely that a win was in the offing anyway.

Alex Cora, SS

Bill Mueller, 3B

David Ortiz, DH

Trot Nixon, RF

Kevin Millar, LF

John Olerud, 1B

Doug Mirabelli, C

Adam Stern, CF

Mark Bellhorn, 2B

The 5th inning began slowly with Cora and Mueller striking out. In quick succession, Ortiz’s single, Nixon’s double, and Millar’s walk loaded the bases, and it seemed that Boston would come back from the 1-2 deficit they found themselves in. Infuriatingly, Nixon was picked off of second base by Sal Fasano. Something about being in that fourth spot makes you a boneheaded baserunner, apparently. The right fielder didn’t blame anyone else but himself, saying, “Stupidity -- great opportunity for Olerud to come up with a big hit --
and [I was] trying to get that extra lead, that extra little jump. It
probably lost the game for us.” It’s not entirely Nixon’s responsibility; some games are lost even before the field is taken.

Wells pitched all 6 innings and gave up 2 home runs. Leftfielder Eli Marrero jacked one in the 3rd from the 8-hole. Melvin Mora also hit one in the same inning, giving the Orioles the lead. Wells’s tendency to be around the plate will usually lead to homers; as long as he keeps his walks down and runners off the basepaths, the occasional longball shouldn’t be of great concern.

Poor, hard-up male Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) still singing late in the mating season, as “most birds still singing continuously are likely unpaired first-summer birds, since few are successful in gaining mates. Songs heard late in the season are usually those of unmated or immature birds.” They had a brilliant start, but seem to be fading as the summer wears on.